$15M urban agriculture center planned for Detroit

DETROIT (WJBK) - A multi-million-dollar project is in the works to take a blighted area on Detroit's east side into a center of urban agriculture.

The Recovery Park project is the vision of Gary Wozniak. The former Chene-Ferry serves as a center for Recovery Park operations, and is where Wozniak and Mayor Mike Duggan introduced the project on Monday.

"It's going to be a five-year development project of close to $15 million in new capital investments coming into neighborhood," said Wozniak.

"This is the kind of partnership between government and our nonprofits that put people back to work and reuse our land that I hope we see a lot more of it," Duggan said.

Under the agreement, which still needs city council approval, the city will lease the land to Recovery Park for $105 per acre per year. In exchange, Recovery Park will relocate its Waterford operations to Detroit, securing or demolishing all vacant and blighted structures and replacing them with greenhouses and hoop houses to grow produce. That produce would go to retailers and food establishments.

Wozniak says most of the people hired will be veterans, ex-offenders and recovering addicts.